When you’ve got a good thing going, don’t break from the formula. That seems to be the method of Belgian broadcaster RTBF, who have again turned to The Voice Belgique for their Eurovision act. The broadcaster confirmed this morning that The Voice 2018 alum Eliot Vassamillet will represent Belgium at Eurovision 2019.
After much media speculation in the past 24 hours, RTBF finally confirmed the news in a press statement issued this morning.
Eliot follows former The Voice Belgique turned Eurovision stars Roberto Bellarosa, Loïc Nottet and Blanche, as well as The Voice van Vlaanderen star Laura Tesoro.
Who is Eliot Vassamillet?
In line with previous Belgian acts, he’ll be going by a mononym in Israel. But whereas Blanche and Sennek went with something new, he’ll just be sticking with Eliot.
High-school student Eliot is just 18 years old but already has vital experience singing live on television. Eliot took part in the 2018 season of The Voice Belgique. There he made it through to the live shows as part of Slimane‘s team, and was said to impress the French singer with the “power, ease and sensitivity” of his audition.
Eliot didn’t make it past the first round of the lives, however, with his performance of Jean-Louis Aubert’s “Alter Ego” not enough to keep him in the contest.
The Voice Belgique – Eliot et Paak – 'Mad World'
Revivez le duel d'Eliot Vassamillet & Paak Kormongkolkul ! ???L'émission complète à (re)voir ? http://bit.ly/The_Voice_Revoir
Posted by RTBF Auvio on Wednesday, February 21, 2018
That’s not exactly a bad thing though: Blanche herself didn’t make it too deep into her season of The Voice. It didn’t matter in Kyiv, where she finished a convincing fourth place with “City Lights”.
And some of the “City Lights” magic could be helping Eliot in Tel Aviv too. Award-winning musician Pierre Dumoulin, one of the co-writers of Blanche’s entry, will pen Eliot’s song.
Explaining why he was keen to work with Eliot, Dumoulin says, “The moment I saw Eliot’s blind audition, I felt he had that little something extra that I look for in an artist, the sensitivity and fragility which are so necessary to convey emotion.”
But while the artist has been confirmed today, we won’t hear anything for a while from Eliot or his song. The broadcaster says it will reveal more at an event in late February.
RBTF at Eurovision
RBTF — the broadcaster for French-speaking Belgium — is responsible for the country’s Eurovision representative every second year, alternating with Flemish broadcaster VRT.
Whilst Belgium’s three-year run in the top ten as came to an end thanks to Sennek’s semi-final elimination in Lisbon, RTBF has its own streak going.
RTBF artists Loic Nottet and Blanche both finished fourth, with “Rhythm Inside” and “City Lights” respectively. Those are two mighty acts and songs to have to follow!
What do you think of RTBF’s choice? Do you think Eliot has what it takes to get Belgium back in the final and inside the top five? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section below.
Really happy for Belgium! Hope the song is good and Belgium keeps the momentum.
I just want French lyrics tbh <3
The battle is really touching, both boys are, just to honour them here 😀
Congrats Eliot! And with Mr Dumoulin songwriting for you as well. Amazing!
The only downside is the postponement of a prediction that one year, eventually, we would have an all-female ESC. 😀 (It was looking on the cards until Belgium shook it up.)
Why would you even want that? i-
It was a political idea, once upon a time.
Countries that had laws banning the promotion of same-sex relationships… if they were to host the contest again, all countries could send singers of one gender to that country in protest. A neat idea that still might happen, one year.
It was not looking like an “all-female-ESC” before Eliot came, because it looked like Bilal will win DE and he is a man 😛
Isn’t Bilal’s fluidity part of the political message, though? “Spectrum”, but not of the radio frequency kind. 🙂
Anyhow, too much politics and not enough music. My fault, I know. To music we go
Same recipe, hopefully similar results! Belgium have been giving us great songs these past few years and they deserve to have the luck on their side once more. Still not convinced 100%, but I have faith in Pierre Dumoulin that they gave him a song that matches his style and capabilities. Good luck!!
He’s cute, he has a nice voice, Pierre Dumoulin in charche of the song… I have said this the previous 2 years too but I say it again: WE ARE SOO GONNA WIN THIS IT’S BEEN SO LONG
*Insert “it’s been 84 years”-meme*
Srsly tho why can’t we post GIFs 😮
Great choice. I just hope it doesn’t sound similar to Blanche or Sennek cause we had that already. Give him something that fits and you will do great!
This looks very promising, Tom Dumoulin created the masterpiece that was City Lights and I think he can give him the same kind of mysterious song. Let’s hope the Belgians actually invest in staging this year, A Matter Of Time was a masterpiece with among the worst stagings of the year.
Pierre Dumoulin ofcourse, Tom Dumoulin is a Dutch cyclist XD
Fair point, but VRT and RTBF opperate strictly on their own. There is no co-operation between the two when it comes finances and in extent their staging budget.
True, but it’s not like City Lights had a good staging either, it was very empty and quite stale. It would be great if they would work together for a bigger budget though, that would be awesome and would open so many oppurtunities.
Yeah well, that’s the difficult situation here in Belgium. 2 main regions, 2 drastically different languages and most importantly: we don’t like to work together.
*Insert politics here*
Here to listen to him : 😉
Eliot alias Eliot Vassamillet – ‘High Hopes’ | Blind Auditions | The Voice Belgique Saison 7 : https://youtu.be/ayNumCA8eaU
How to make Eurovision hit:
Mix Blanche’s voice with Loic’s stage presence and staging, add a bit of luck, and you’ve got another top 10 finish.
He seems like a cool artist but his voice might be cracky a bit looking at some of his video footage. I hope he has more self-confidence than Blanche and wish him all the best.
Excellent choice from RTBF! He can play with the camera can bring emotion over to the audience. Has a sensitive magic around him. He can sing hope he can control his nerves and stress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh5nFj01_I4
OOHHH Well this shall be interesting to see!
Perhaps a Combination of Loïc and Blanche, a deadly combo!!!
https://youtu.be/KzeHBDfHw5M
And here we have our first male contestant! 🙂 I expect a very good song from Belgium this year. Good luck!
Kinda risky to send someone who was eliminated so early in The Voice but all it takes is a great song. He’s also more attractive than anyone since Eric Saade, wig.
Blanche got eliminated pretty early too, look how she did 🙂
Yes BUT if she hadn’t been so nervous she could have placed higher 😉
I don’t think, actually. 4th was the maximum for her and this kind of music, I think (but I can be mistaken, we’ll never know, after all, lol).
The song has to be good.
He’s such a cutie. 🙂
OMG. Tel Aviv will be even hotter in may than usually, cause you are amazing, Eliot <3 <3 <3
Brussels 2020! 😀
Stunning story, Chris!
As a Flemish person I can only say… In RTBF we trust!
Also: What a beautiful name! Sounds as if it was taken out of a romance novel.
Anne Elliot from Persuasion by Jane Austen
But also the last name is so beautiful.
Billy Elliot with Jamie Bell
Yes, but he is not going to use it (the last name).
Or like Elliott from Call me By Your Name. Which is a romance..
Wow to that audition. Simply wow.
Can’t wait to hear this, as all of Blanche’s songs composed by Pierre were great
Pff it seems to be Amasing again! Look at his audition, he seems so nice!! I hope his song will slay everyone away!
I’m calling it: Belgium is gonna do the hat trick. I usually don’t get excited over uncertain things that could go either way, But Wallonia has been so good since 2015 that I’m sure they’ll do everything to stay in the top 5.
No, don’t forget Roberto Bellarosa!
I didn’t forget. Wallonia started being great with Loic.
That’d be interesting if they won, since it’d be the same thing as the last time Belgium won: the Walloon broadcaster wins and the Flemish broadcaster has the host entry and they co-organize the whole thing.
That would be so thankless. I trust the Walloon broadcaster much more now, especially after the disaster that was 2018. How a broadcaster stages their entries can be quite telling as to how they might approach staging the entire contest.
Hopefully another Loïc Nottet success! 🙂
Finally. I’m very curious for the song! Hopefully Pierre Dumoulin is going to write an even better song than City Lights. I’m sooooo excited!
He cute…
He actually doesn’t look that cute to me , he just looks young